I realize the great game debate is just as over done and tense as the one done on abortion. Everyone has a comment most of which are misleading and ignorant of the facts *cough* Jack Thompson. Yet no matter what the issue continues and now even more so with the release of Grand Theft Auto: Lost and the Damned.



I realize there is already a post on the issue but I want to focus more on Lost and Damned's full frontal nudity, God Forbid, and on the entire debate itself. First off, does any one remember a game called XXX-BMX.



The game tried to combine to cool things: BMX and full-frontal female nudity. Players could do BMX tricks and earn money to spend at a strip club. The game would then show actual strip club footage allowing the player to immerse themselves in the same grungy world of drunken and sexual debauchery without having to leave the home. Almost like what most people do on a typical Friday night with internet porn and a bottle of lotion. The game also allowed the player to create a topless female character to ride around the course with. Now maybe I am wrong on some the details. I never got to play the game myself, not because I did not want to, but because the game is awful. And I am not speaking of the moralistic implications of the game I mean the game just sucks, maybe literally who knows. The game mechanics were awful and a gamer soon found that it was better to watch real porn while playing a Matt Hoffman BMX game then to buy XXX-BMX. I bring up this game because lets face, there is no real controversy of the game. However, as soon as a penis is shown in a good game, a popular game, and even a media frenzy worthy game tempers flare.



Lets face the videogame debate did not start over nudity but violence. Violence had always been an issue going way back before Mortal Kombat. Then of course Mortal Kombat made the scene, a game that featured unrealistic blood but awesome fatalities and people, parents and old people, freaked. And understandably so. Mortal Kombat was an arcade game and had no restrictions to a younger audience who were only a quarter away from shoving a sword up someone's ass. [Blogger Note: Scorpion actually did this to me in Mortal Kombat Armagedon. I had been fighting him over and over again trying to beat him when all of a sudden performs a fatality on me by spinning me around, bending me over, shoving a sword up my character's ass, and then removing said sword with pieces of my body attached. This is why Scorpion is both a dick and awesome.] Still when the rating system took over, and companies like Gamestop and Toys 'R Us started to adhere to the ratings and require proof of age or adult consensus to purchase or rent games the debate should have ended there.

But it didn't...



No. The gamer debate continued. School shootings didn't help, but at the same time school shootings should not have been a factor. I could understand if we were in the world of virutal reality that is portrayed in Metal Gear Solid 4 but we are not. Have you ever fired a gun? Well, I will tell you from first hand experience that it is difficult at first. I do not care how much Halo I had played but when I went to a firing range for the first time I ended up with a bruised shoulder and bullet casing burn on my wrist. Oh, and at no point did a say you know in Halo he holds the gun like this and then *poof* oh my god I am a natural shot. Not even close. You know what makes kids commit acts of violence: parental neglect, constant bullying, inadequate school systems, loss of reality, and general craziness (oh Damien "Its all for you.").



Now I do think games can spurn violence when for example a person plays a game to long and loses their sense on reality. I will not hate on the WoW people but I have read far more issues about Everquest then WoW anyway. And still, in these instances the person's choice to play the game, or the parents letting the child play the game still comes down to choice. The game did not force anyone to commit acts of violence someone made a choice to do so. And no, a game cannot suggest committing acts of violence otherwise movies and books can do the same thing.



I do not care how much prostitute killing is done in a game, as long as the game is being played by the person the game is intended then there should be no debate. If a 12 or 16 year old child is playing GTA then most likely the parents bought that game for that child. So in essence yes, "Blame the parents." I realize kids make their own choices but this does not excuse parental choice. If most parents would take half the time the need to spend with them instead of being consumed by their own BS then the kid would probably turn out alright and the world would not be burdened with the passive agressive Millenium students we have today whose only recourse when dealing with a situation is to run to mom and dad because they were never taught how to deal with problems on their own. Or maybe parents should just cut the cord and let their kids grow a little as individuals and next time your kid gets beat up for picking a fight or bullying another kid you should tell that kid tough, deal with it cause you made the decision that lead to this instead of trying to sue the other kid or the kid's family. Now all this comes from a non-parent some I'm sure someone will have an issue.

In short, GTA: Lost and the Damned is intended for 17 or 18 year olds and up. The game even comes with a nice little mature content warning on it. The game is not made for kids nor it is intended for kids. And if the person playing cannot handle the nudity or violence then turn the game off and find another one to play. Go play Flower. The only violence in that game is [SPOILER] when at some point the game lightening develops the ability to electrocute flower petals. Still a great game though. I will admit that occassionally people will not check the rating of a game and will then sell that game to a kid. After all I witnessed an adult cashier at a Gamestop tell a parent that GTA was to violent only to go and suggest God of War. Luckily, I as the voice of reason spoke up and said, "Doesn't that game have an orgy mini-game? Sorry 13 year old kid you will have to find another way for your balls to drop, so off you run go play some Naruto."

I think the whole vidoegame argument exist because parents, or even just adults in general do not play videogames for the most part and as such this new thing or even thing that captures their child's attention so easily scares them. At the same time parents, who work hard to suppor their families, like the digital babysitter for what it is. Better then having little Johnny get hit by a car or smoking crack out in suburbia hell. Again though, and it does not take much, would not let your kid watch an R-rated movie without your guidence. So why would you let the kid play an R-rated game. It just does not make sense. Besides, games are not just for kids, even though most people act like kids when they play them, the games are for a wide range of ages, for people of all genders, sexual orientation, religions, races, etc. Games have the potential to provide enjoyment for just about anyone or to allow just about anyone to be offended, which I think is trully grand. Equality.

Now lets get back to something that really matters like the console war.